Northern farmers find customers on Amman-Irbid highway

JERASH – The highway linking Amman with the northern governorates is a “good” venue for farmers to sell their fresh fruits and vegetables to motorists.

Dozens of farmers display their produce on both sides of the 80-kilometre highway that connects the capital with Jerash, Ajloun and Irbid. 

Abdullah Mfadhi, a farmer from Jerash, said the highway is always busy with motorists going to the north or heading to Amman, noting that thousands of cars pass by in both directions. 

The produce for sale on the roadside is from farms near Jerash, some 40 kilometres north of Amman, according to Mfadhi, who added that motorists find the prices reasonable because no middlemen are involved. 

“Vegetables and fruit come straight from the farm to consumers,” he told The Jordan Times. 

One such consumer, Ahmad Shloul, pulled over to the side of the highway on the way to his hometown city of Irbid over the weekend. 

“It is much cheaper here than vegetable shops either in Amman or Irbid,” Shloul told The Jordan Times while bargaining with a farmer selling eggplants.

The private sector employee based in the capital was trying to buy an eight-kilogramme box of fresh eggplants to be pickled for JD5 instead of JD6. The farmer, Mohammad Otoum, insisted that shops sell one box for over JD8, but eventually accepted the price offered by Shloul. 

Otoum noted that the produce displayed on the highway is fresh and of high quality, adding that farmers usually sell off their products before sunset. 

“People here sell seasonal agricultural produce; for example when it is pomegranate season you find tens of stalls offering the fruit. We also sell olives, oranges and some rare plants such as Gundelia,” the farmer explained. 

Samer Rashdan was buying boxes of apples and eggplants. 

“I live in Amman, but I go to see my family in Irbid once every two or three weeks. I always buy gifts from what is offered on the road,” he said.